Idaho
Idaho bill that would require children to opt in to vaccine registry heads to House floor – Idaho Capital Sun
Idaho legislators advanced a bill on Monday that would require parents to opt in to the state’s vaccine registry, rather than Idaho’s existing policy that lets them to opt their children out.
Legislators on Idaho’s House Health and Welfare Committee on Monday advanced a bill that would require medical providers to only share the vaccination status of Idaho kids in a state-run database if their parents or caregivers say so.
Currently, Idaho’s immunization database, called the Immunization Reminder Information System, lets patients not be part of the database by opting out. If passed, the bill would take effect July 1, 2024.
Some health care professionals said the switch could leave Idaho medical offices with millions more in administrative costs.
Idaho’s children immunization rates, which have been among the lowest in the nation for years, fell in recent years as more people opted out of vaccines required for school, Idaho Education News reported last fall. Before the pandemic, 86.5% of Idaho kindergartners, first- and seventh-grade students were vaccinated. By 2021-22, only 80.2% were, Idaho EdNews reported.
House Majority Leader Megan Blanksma, R-Hammett, who is sponsoring House Bill 397, said she worried that Idahoans vaccination data — including for adults — is in Idaho’s vaccine database without them knowing. She referenced own experience finding out that her children’s and mother’s vaccine records were in the state database without their permission, after she opted out for her children. She also said Idaho’s vaccine database originally was “opt in” based.
As she closed debate on her bill, Blanksma said many Idahoans who received vaccines “don’t know that the government was collecting your data on that vaccine” because they weren’t given an informed consent form.
“That’s what should scare us more than anything else … that there’s data collection that people don’t know about, are completely unaware of. And that’s what this bill fixes,” Blanksma said. “It makes sure everyone knows where their medical data is going.”
Blanksma also said in the hearing that Idaho’s opt-out rate was low because it is difficult to opt out, and the bill would ensure that medical “providers don’t opt you in.”
“It’s become more complicated, and less transparent,” she said. “… Anytime the government is collecting your data, it should be transparent.”
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How would the opt-in changes affect medical providers?
The change should not require more state and federal funds, the bill’s fiscal note estimates. Blanksma also told the committee that she doesn’t expect increased costs for providers. She said under Idaho’s current opt-in model, “they are already providing the data to the government.”
But Rebecca Coyle, who said she was an expert on immunization registries, said if you assume that this would cost $10,000 to update each system, it’d cost over $10 million across the more than 1,000 clinics connected to Idaho’s vaccine registry. The medical system today is built for an “opt-out system,” she said, and adding consent files to those systems would be costly.
“It’s going to push a cost over $10 million in costs back to citizens of this state,” Coyle said, “for fewer than 1,000 people who have opted out since 2010.”
Many rural clinics would likely “fail to comply” with the bill because of the high costs of changing the reporting system, said Dr. Cristina Abuchaibe, a doctor in eastern Idaho who represented the Idaho chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“In order for every single potential patient to be given the choice, it will require extra staff and it will require fancier electronic medical record systems. To be perfectly honest with you, the rural areas don’t have the capacity to support,” Abuchaibe testified. “We’re barely surviving now with a lot of the physicians also doing a lot of the staff work and working as a team to be able to keep up.”
Idaho Family Policy Center Policy Associate Grace Howat, the only member of the public to testify in support of the bill Monday, said Idaho’s current opt-out practice “intrudes on the privacy of Idaho parents and intrudes on parental rights.”
“Parents are responsible for raising their children, not the state,” Howat testified.
Heather Gagliano, an Idaho mom and registered nurse, testified against the bill. She said she’s been fully informed of her rights to participate in Idaho’s vaccine registry for her two children over the years.
And as a public health professional who’s given thousands of vaccines, she said she’s seen the benefits of Idaho’s vaccine system’s ease of use for medical providers. But when kids immunization records are incomplete, or hand-written and often illegible, she has to delay care, Gagliano said.
Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, made a motion that the committee send the bill to the House floor and recommend that it pass. Only the committee’s three Democrats opposed the vote, after a failed motion by House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, to hold the bill in committee.
House Bill 397 now heads to the House floor, where lawmakers could debate it before sending it through to the Idaho Senate.
What is the Immunization Reminder Information System, or IRIS?
Idaho’s IRIS system is similar to those used by other states. It helps health care providers remind people when they, or their children, are due for vaccines. Child care providers can access it to verify a child’s vaccine status. It also maintains a record so that, for example, a patient with a short memory doesn’t get a tetanus booster shot every year.
The records are stored securely and made accessible only to health care providers, child care providers and schools. Individual patients also can request their own records, or opt to have their records excluded from IRIS.
Idaho Republican leadership sent a letter to former Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in 2021 accusing the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare of unlawfully using the state’s vaccine-record keeping system, calling for the agency to destroy its records on adult immunizations. An attorney for the Idaho Office of the Attorney General replied later that year that the department wasn’t unlawfully using the system and that lawmakers were wrong.
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho lawmakers have introduced legislation that would phase out state funding for the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs while keeping the commission in place.
The proposal, introduced by Rep. Jeff Ehlers, would gradually eliminate general fund support for the commission by July 1, 2028. The commission would continue to operate but would need to rely on private funding.
Rep. Ehlers told the House Revenue and Taxation Committee on Thursday that the proposal came from recommendations by Idaho’s DOGE Task Force, which reviewed government programs and spending.
READ MORE | Idaho DOGE Task Force recommends defunding Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs
The bill would also eliminate the commission from a list of organizations eligible for a state income tax charitable contribution credit.
Rep. Steve Berch questioned why the legislation would remove both state funding and the tax credit option, saying it could make it more difficult for the commission to raise money.
“I hate to use this word, but I’m really offended by this specific effort to make it that much more difficult for private citizens to be able to contribute to the Hispanic commission,” Rep. Berch said in committee. “I don’t think this can be justified from a financial point of view, and quite frankly, I don’t think it can be justified from a moral point of view.”
In response, Rep. Jason Monks said that it would be more “offensive” to not allow further discussion of the bill before a final decision is made.
The proposal comes after an earlier attempt this session to eliminate the commission entirely. In January, Rep. Heather Scott presented a draft bill that would have removed all references to the commission from Idaho law and dissolved it by July 1, but that measure failed to advance out of committee.
The committee ultimately voted on Thursday to introduce the legislation, allowing it to be printed and advanced for further debate.
This story has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
Shanea Fulks is the owner of Seven Sisters Closet Revival, a new consignment store at 260 South Woodruff in Idaho Falls. Take a look inside in the video above. | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com
Do you want to know what’s happening in the eastern Idaho business scene? We’ve got you covered. Here is a rundown of this week’s business news across the valley.
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IDAHO FALLS
New consignment shop in Idaho Falls offers vintage clothes for customers and booth space for sellers
IDAHO FALLS – Curating vintage clothing is Shanea Fulks’s passion, and she’s sharing it with the community through a new business venture.
Seven Sisters Closet Revival opens Saturday at 260 South Woodruff inside Parkwood Plaza in Idaho Falls. It offers racks of vintage clothes for customers and booth space for others to sell their items.
“You get a rack with shelves, and you can come in throughout the week and sell things,” Fulks tells EastIdahoNews.com. “The things you’ll see in the middle of the store are pieces that I have curated. I hand-pick all the things I bring to the store.”
See some of the items in the video above.
Fulks says she’s had multiple people walk in already who are excited about the shop.
The store will have a grand opening this weekend. Fulks is partnering with the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce for a ribbon-cutting and open house at noon on Friday. A local band will be performing during the event.
Then on Saturday, a grand opening celebration will begin at 2 p.m. Several vendors and live entertainment will be available. Fulks says she’s looking forward to interacting with the community.
Fulks has been selling items from her personal collection online for years. After helping a mother and daughter find a formal dress during an interaction at another shop in town several years ago, Fulks says she realized there was a need for a store like this.
After about a year of working with real estate agents, Fulks says the Parkwood Plaza space formerly occupied by a beauty salon called Blush became available, and it was an ideal fit.
“It’s just been a whirlwind and we’re just trying to get it going,” says Fulks.
Fulks’ interest in fashion stems back to childhood. She lost her dad and stepdad to suicide at a young age and grew up in a household that struggled to make ends meet. As a result, she says they bought clothes at Goodwill and other secondhand stores.
She remembers being made fun of because of the clothes she wore. In time, she learned to embrace her uniqueness and developed an interest in vintage clothes.
“I’ve just always been attracted to old sweaters, military jackets (her dad served in Vietnam),” Fulks says. “I like to help people feel confident wearing something unique, even if it’s not trendy. Be bold and wear whatever you want.”
The idea of making the most of your circumstances and embracing who you are is inspired by her experience with suicide, and it’s reflected in the art that’s on display in her store.
“Part of the theme in my store is ‘Stay. We need you,’” she says.
The business name refers to her family. She comes from a blended family of six girls and four boys. When she and her husband were married, they had a daughter — the seventh sister.
Fulks says she’s looking forward to offering great deals to customers. She has two sons with autism who love art, and she wants to host art-themed events for people with special needs. She’d also like to host tea parties and other events in the future.
“I want people to come and feel like they belong,” she says. “I’m going to allow people to do karaoke. When you’re here, I want you to feel like you can have fun.”
Seven Sisters Closet Revival will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
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Gov. Brad Little has signed House Bill 533, which would remove the need for license plate stickers on Idaho vehicles.
The legislation, introduced earlier this session by Rep. Jon Weber (R) of Boise, eliminates the requirement for registration stickers on Idaho license plates. Weber stated during the bills intorduction that officers can verify the status of license plates without the stickers, potentially saving the state around $300,000.
During the bill’s introduction, some lawmakers argued that it could increase the workload for law enforcement.
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The new law is set to take effect in July.
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